Aug 29th Day 49

Last night we went over to Dan & Donna's boat for dinner and to make our plans to beat the Georgian Bay. Dinner was great. With the plan in our heads we all turned in early, not much choice when the sun goes down and you have no power.

We got up early this morning as the weather report said 10 knot winds which we were waiting for. Both of us (Dan & Donna on SYZYGY) pulled anchor and were under way by 7am. Everything looked like a go for the crossing. Well ole Georgian Bay had a different idea for us. As we got to the last island like we had in the previous 2 tries she laid all her power on us. We both decided this was not worth it, so around we went bad to the secure anchorage. Another 10 mile voyages with no progress made. Nice thing about thye try was there was a black bear standing on an island watching our return, probably thinking crazy people thinking they could conquer the bay.We reanchored and settled in for another weather day. Around noon Dan and I took the dingy out a small channel toward our now famous give up point and from what we could see it looked like the Ole Bay may have laided down a bit. Back we went told the girls the possible good news and prepared to get underway. Out for the forth time we went the tracks on my GPS were getting to look like a major highway. We rounded around the Islands and headed for the open Bay. Looks pretty good as we reached the turn around point, in my mind I thought is the good Ole Bay just trying to get us farther out into her clutches before she comes down on us? Farther we went into the Bay and things were not all that bad, had some rouge waves that would give us a good rock and let us know she was still there. Once we got to the half way point there was no turning back. Everything was going great as we turned into the last 4 miles of the run the ole Bay decided to give us one more ride but we finally beat her out.
Lin and I looked back and with a sigh of relief said Thanks for letting us cross Ole Bay. We proceeded up thru Collins Inlet which was well worth the trip across the bay can say that now that we are across and at a great anchorage at Mill Lake To celebrate our crossing we made a venison meatloaf and had Dan and Donna over for cocktails and dinner. Tomorrow another adventure and we were sure glad to put some miles under the keel and end up at a different location.

Lin & Rich
Anchored at Mill Lake. To celebrate our

Aug 28th Day 48

Well Day 48 is not any better than Day 47. We got off the hook and underway at 7am anchorage looked good. We rounded the islands we were behind and there it was the open Bay. She was just waiting for those who would dare to challenge her. That was us. First 2 miles were not to bad she was just waiting for us to clear the last wind breaking island, then she laid all her power on us.
When the bow pulpit started to go under the wave in front of us we thought what the heck are we thinking. Just then we heard a bang our table on the back deck flipped upside down. Time to turn around and give in to the mighty Bay one more time. We made it back into the anchorage at 8:30 traveled 10 miles and were back at the same anchorage with Dan & Donna who did not venture out with us. Tonight and tomorrow morning they are saying the wind will decrease to 10 knots. So we will try to get underway by 6am and face the Bay one more day, one of these days we will win (we hope). After tomorrow the winds are suppose to pick up till Thursday, we may get frozen in here if we don't make a move soon.

Lin & Rich
on the swing
Tie Island
Georgian Bay

Aug 27th Day 47

Well we decided yesterday we would put some water under the keel if it was good or bad weather. Well we did just that or tried too. When we got out of the inlet we ran into Dan and Donna on Syzygy,they had just come off 6miles of the bay and said it was not too good, well you know us bad or good we were going. It was BADDER than BAD after a little we swung around and headed for the inland small craft channel. We followed Syzygy to an anchorage , and we decided we would try the Bay again for the 15 miles left to Collins Inlet. After we cleared all the islands and were back in open water we decided again it was BADDER than bad, both times there were 5 to 6 footers coming right at the bow. When our fishing poles came crashing down to the floor we decided it was time to turn around and head back to the anchorage where Dan & Sue were safely tucked in.
We got anchored at noon and had traveled 33 miles some backtrack in 4.5 hours. Now we are on the hook swinging in semi circles. From what we see on the weather this will not let up till Tuesday so we may take a beating and cross the 15 miles in the next day or so, but we have said that before. The boat can take it it is just never racking on us.
We met Dan and Donna at Fort Edward this summer when we were there with John and Cindy.
They had tranny problems in Lake Champlain and have been behind us by a day or so since.
We are planning cocktails and then maybe a campfire on shore tonight if the wind lets up.
Excitement of today besides the weather was Lin spotted a black bear on one of the Islands, even stood on his,hers hind legs for us. Turns out there were two of them, as we got closer they took off was pretty cool
Well another semi weather delay but at least we made some headway with some back tracking.

Lin & Rich
On the hook(swing)
Tie Island

Aug 26th Day 46

Another wind delay this is getting old hat
Today we defrosted the freezer and cleaned the frig.
It is getting so bad here with only one radio station mostly talk and no TV
we watched "Happy Feet" today.
Decided good or bad we are moving on with this adventure tomorrow
Looks like the morning should be good so we will head out early and get
the 35 miles of open water done then tuck into the protected Collins Inlet
Well another exciting day waiting for the weather comes to an end.

Lin & Rich
Weathered in
Byng Inlet

Aug 25th Day 45

Well another weather day the prediction was for 20 to 30 knot winds on the Bay so we just stayed put in the safe Inlet. We have planned a 35 mile run in open water to Collins Inlet and then to Killarney which is actually the end of the Georgian Bay. After that we will be in the North Channel. The wind is really hollowing as I write this so we are hoping it lets up before morning.
We took the 1/2 mile walk into town this afternoon. There is a general store, church, post office and a(school, nursing station, library all in one building. Just a relaxing day. We can get one radio station and two fuzzie tv station(can't see anything). Lin cut my hair the other day so I had to readjust my hats. That is all the excitement from here.

Lin & Rich
Bygn Inlet
Georgian Bay

Aug 24th Day 44

We had a great dinner at Henry's last night we did get the wallie and had enough left overs for another time down the bay. Great night to sleep, this far north it has cool nights and dewy mornings, kinda making us think fall is coming. Looked over our charts after dinner and decided with the nice weather day ahead we would again put some water under the keel and get closer to the end of the Georgian Bay. Don't get us wrong this part of the country is spectacular but we want to beat the winter in Chicago. We again made our way thru channels which were deep at times around rock islands with beautiful cottages and just piles of rocks and rocks just lurking under the surface awaiting for the non aware boater to drift just so little out of the marked channel, something like a alligator lurking just under the water waiting for the loan wildebeast. We had some tense moments and probably put a few extra miles under the keel but in the end all turned out ok and we are safe for one more day. Today we traveled 69.5 miles in 8 hours, same time some of you might have worked today, we now have logged 1,029 miles in our 44 days. Later we will get the charts out and figure our route for tomorrows adventure. Sometimes it is hecktic in unfamilar waters but we are still enjoying ourselves when the day comes to an end.

Chart time
Lin & Rich
Byng Inlet

Aug 23 Day 43

We are back on the water. We said our goodbyes to are new friends Steve and Sue who gave us a lot of good advice and companionship over the last 10 days, it was a great time, hopefully we can catch them in the Keys this winter. Nice morning with just a little overcast so off we went. We refueled and were under way at 10:30. Nice ride across the bay into Honey Harbor, the rest of the day was spent weaving in and out of rock islands. Some have cottages on them and some of the cottages were as big as the rock island, it is surely a beautiful area. We have heard for years how nice it is here and now we are seeing it with our own eyes. We are now at the famous Henry's restaurant and will sample some of the fish and chips brought in from Lake Erie. We believe we will have the Walleye and chips. It was good to be underway again and "ole" Goofin Off" is doing her best to get us around, feed her a little fuel and oil and she seems happy, when she is running good and happy so are we. This is surely a beautiful part of North America and we are glad we are passing thru it. We traveled 39.4 miles thru some of the most beautiful country.

Lin & Rich
Henry's Restaurant
small craft chanel Georgian Bay, Ontario

Aug 22 Day 42

We were up early and were ready to shove off when the fog and some light rain moved in.
We were in a holding pattern for awhile when it started to clear. Again we got ready and said our good byes. Well you guessed it in came the fog and rain, so this time we decided it must not meant to leave today. So here we are again at Bay Mooring. The next few days are suppose to be sunny and nice, so tomorrow we will try again. Forgot to tell you that yesterday I got out one of the fold up bikes, installed our basket and headed to town. Did good on the 20" tires and was able to keep the bike upright. Even was able to get some supplies and make it back to the boat with an unbroken dozen eggs.

Lin & Rich Held up with bad weather
BAY MOORING MARINA

Aug 21 Day 41

Well the weather did not look good for today so we stayed at Bay Moorings for the day
Linda did a lot of cleaning while Steve,Nigel and I,actually I watched, load charts for the Georgian Bay onto our computer. The marina gave me a CD of the bay with some real good info on it, places to go and good anchorages. We are hoping for good weather for tomorrow so we can start across the small craft channel, first stop Henry's fish restaurant about 30 or so miles from here.
I changed the fuel filters today and cleaned all the raw water intake strainers, lots of weeds up here. Went over and had our last cocktails and chat with Steve and Sue tonight, seems like we have known them forever, they are real nice people who we will miss traveling with. Hopefully we will be able to hook up with them in the Keys.

Lin & Rich
Bay Mooring Marina
Georgian Bay

Aug 20 Day 40

Got up early this morning to head to the marina for the haul out and prop replacement.
Well we were all ready to go but the weather (fog) said we had to wait. It was 9am before the fog
lifted off the bay for us to head out. Nice ride to Midland, Ontario and Baymoorings marina.
Arrived here at 11am and traveled 13.9 miles. I pulled the spare props out of the engine room and they hauled us out at noon. For sure the port had damage and some slight damage to the starboard prop, lucky for us there was no more damage. While she was out of the water I checked the draft with the 31 wheels we draft 4.5' the write up said 3.5'. Now we know we at least need 5' of water under her to be safe.
New props on and seem ok. We will stay here over night and head out in the am. Steve and Sue are hunkered in to the new marina which is really nice with all the gadgets. They had friends Nigel and Michelle come for the weekend and Sue made dinner and Lin made a salad for us all, real good time. We will really miss their company when we leave tomorrow and it will be just back to the two of us.

Lin & Rich
Baymoorings Midland, Ontario

Aug 19th Day 29

Was the start of a nice morning. We were in the Big Chute at 8:30 and it was quite the ride, it is real a great system the hill is steep but the train platform keeps the boat level. While in the air I had the lock master look at my prop and he confirmed by findings, it needs to be replaced. we will have the boat hauled at Steve and Sue's new marina Bay Moorings Marina. When we got to the lock at Severn the wind picked up and the sky got black, we made the decision to wait till morning to go the 15 miles down the Georgian Bay. Bay did not look to good, so today was a real short day 2 hours and only 7.1 miles. We have a spare set of props so we will put them on and wait till we get to Florida to have the prop repaired. That is it from the water front for now.

Lin & Rich
Port Severn, Ontario

Aug 18th Day 38

Yesterday was a great day with one downer. We left Portage at 8:30 and headed toward Lake Simcoe. The weather was great with just a slight wind. The lake was calm so the 16 mile trip across was uneventful. We traveled some small rivers and lakes with beautiful shore lines and as they are called cottages. The water was deeper so it was a less stressful day. There were the few narrow spots but all went well. We went thru 5 locks i train swing bridge and i highway swing bridge. We arrived at the BIG CHUTE at 4:57 and docked for the night. This is a railroad type car that goes into the water you drive your boat into it, they strap you in then this train comes out of the water, across a road and down a hill to a bay. When we say hill we mean hill, you stay on the boat and when you go into the water at the other end you drive off. I will someday when I have time try to attach a picture to the blog(have not figured that out yet.
Day was great as I said 52.9 miles in 8.5 hours. To date we have traveled 898 miles.
Now for the not so good part, went in the water yesterday and found that the port prop has some damage to it after hitting the dead heads(underwater logs) in the channel. We plan to go to Steve and Sues new marina and get haul to evaluate the damage. I have two spare props we will probably put on so as not to be held up getting the one fixed and will do that in Florida.
We will call the marina this am to see if they can pull us.

Lin & Rich
Waiting for the BIG CHUTE adventure

Aug 17th Day 37

Had a great night last night, we cooked out and had dinner with Steve and Sue. Had a nice talk and went over some more charts and anchorages. While we were sitting around chatting an Osprey swoops down and snags this huge northern pike flies up to a tree branch and starts to chow down. The pike had to be as big as the bird. Nice breeze last night so sleeping was great Had to wait for the lock to open this morning so did not get underway till 8:45. The course we took today was narrow and when we say narrow we mean it, at times you could almost reach out and touch the trees on both sides. We went into the Kirkfield hydraulic lift tub. When you pull into it you are up some 5 stories in this tub. After you tie up they add a foot of water to the tub which makes it heavier than the other tub and down you go 49 feet. It is a little more of a thrill than the Peterborough tubs as this one is in the open where Peterborough you were kinda enclosed. The wind really got strong and they recommended to stay off Simcoe lake as high winds could produce 8 footers. We tucked in at lock 39 at 2:15. We are hoping the winds will be better tomorrow and we can get across the 20 mile lake. Today we traveled 22.3 miles in 4.5 hours. Soon we will depart the company of Steve and Sue and head on our way across the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron headed towards Lake Michigan.

Lin & Rich
Lock 39 Portage Ontario

Aug 16th Day 36

We got underway at 7:10 this morning and headed across Pigeon and Buckhorn Lakes. Thru the town of Bobcaygeon and then across Sturgeon Lake. Some of these lakes only have a channel depth of 7 to 8 feet. Real nice scenery and lake front homes. The wind was strong and the lakes had white caps and 1 to 3 footers. we pulled into the bottom of lock 35 town of Rosedale at 1:10, decided to spend the night here. This is where we will start to lock down to Severn also tomorrow we will be as far north in Canada as we go, bad part is some of the trees are turning color already. We have one more big lake to cross before reaching Severn and the Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe which we are told could be a rough ride in bad weather as it is shallow. We are still with Steve and Sue and will go over charts and anchorages this afternoon. It looks like 4 or 5 days to cross the Georgian Bay to Killarney, then across Lake Huron to Lake Michigan.
Today we went 35 miles thru 3 locks in 5.5 hours.
Forgot to tell you yesterday, Sunday, as we were crossing Stony lake with many islands we came across a church built on a rock island called"Rock Church" there were many small boats on docks at the church and we saw many more on the way, it was pretty cool. One girl(lady) was holding here hair so it would not look wind blown for church (just a little tidbit of info)

Great day here hope yours is the same

Lin & Rich
Rosedale Ontario

Aug 15th Day 35

This morning before we head out I did my first oil and filter change. Now the problem is finding a place to get rid of the oil. We left at 8:45 forecast for the day is not good so we plan on traveling according to the weather. When we got to Lock 31 Buckhorn the weather did not look to good and we had a 18 mile stretch of open water before the next lock so at 1pm we decided to call it a day. We had two long days so a short one was ok. We went thru 5 locks to day and traveled 21.9 miles. Tomorrow we will shove off between 7 and 7:30 and put some water under the keel. We should be in the Georgian Bay sometime Thursday if everything goes as planned. Steve and Sue will head to their new marina and Lin and I will venture into Lake Huron.

Looks like we are going to be hit by a storm so I will sign off for now

Lin& Rich
Lock 31
Buckhorn, Ontario

Aug 14th Day 34

We got an early start today were under way at 7am. We crossed Rice Lake this morning while I wrote about yesterday. Once off the lake we were back in the river and canal went thru a lot of small villages and we meandered thru the countryside. We went thru 7 locks and 3 swing bridges. The most exciting part of the day was the hydraulic lift at Peterborough. It is a national historic site that gives the boater the thrilling ride of the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world (19.8m) 65ft let us tell you it really is a thrill and it lifts fast and there you are in a tube suspended 65' in the air wait till you see the pictures from the top. You tie yourself in the tub and away you go. Lin's knuckles were a little white when we got to the top. Great day with new found friends(thanks to Tom & Elizabeth). Today we traveled 48 miles in 9:15 hours.
Weather was nice but supposed to get bad tonight with rain tomorrow.

Lin & Rich
Lakefield on the Trent-Severn

FRIDAY the 13th Day 33

It was a great day for us. Yesterday we met Steve and Sue Friends of Tom and Elizabeth Joy for those who don't know them they are our friends from the marina and Tom has been my electrical consultant on this voyage without his expertise I would be pulling my hair out and Lin would probably be looking for a way home. Anyways they are great people and we traveled with them yesterday for 26 miles of beautiful Trent River thru 11 locks and 2 swing bridges We left at 8:35and arrived in Hastings at 5pm. Had a great visit and will be with them for the next 190 miles to they get to their home port of Lake Huron, I am sure Lin is glad to have someone to talk to besides me. We can't believe we have been together for 33 days most we have been with each other in our 42 years of marriage. Tomorrow we plan on leaving at 7am and may go thru the hydro lift in Peterborough, which is a tub that lifts you to the next level, hope the doors are secure, should be interesting being in a tub in the air.
Well Lin is at the helm as I write this since we had bad internet last night

Lin & Rich
crossing Rice Lake
Trent-Severn Waterway
Ontario, Canada

Aug 12th Day 32

This morning it was raining so we hung out for awhile, went to a farmers market and did some boat things. At noon time it cleared and we decided to put some water time in. We are now on the Trent river which is very nice. The first three locks were almost insight of each other. We did 7 locks today and are at the bottom of the 8th lock. We logged 25.5 miles today and will get an early start tomorrow. I hate to say to much but everything seemed to go great today. The only thing I can say are the mosquitoes are brutal here on the wall. Once the rain stopped today the weather was great and we had a great day on the water. We are looking forward to many more days like this.

Lin & Rich
Bottom lock 8 on the Trent Severn

Aug 11th Day 31

As you might have noticed I put Aug 19th as the date I did that to see who was paying attention while reading the blog, believe that?
Well think we got everything in order but every time we say that something else goes a miss, so we will just say good for now. We waited for fuses and had to fuel and pump out, we hoped to get the 10 am bridge lift, when we got to the bridge it was not working. We tied to the wharf and waited, repairs were done and we were under the bridge at 10:30 and headed to Trenton the beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway. We traveled the North Channel of Lake Ontario the weather was great sun and a light breeze. It was nice to sit back and relax with deep water and plenty of room. We put a lot of water under our keel as we logged 71.7 miles arriving in Trenton after 7 hours. In the morning there is a farmers market up the street that we will probably go and check out. We took a walk up in town around 7pm and the only two things open were a drug store and a grocery store.

Lin & Rich
Trenton, Ontario
Beginning of the Trent-Severn Waterway

Aug 19th Day 30

Well today was a good day, we got a lot of stuff done around the boat. Lin did a lot of cleaning and got the laundry caught up. I was in the engine room and found and fixed a small leak in the fuel system of the genset. The batteries were way up where they should be after being charged by shore power all night. Was nice being able to sleep without worrying about the charging system. Around 2pm Rob came to the boat with the alternators in hand and said I have good and bad news. Give us the good news we said, The alternators are good, the shop retested them this morning and found they were from Cats and had to be tested different, but they are good. Bad news we have a bad wire or connection somewhere. Back down we went and started testing, to make a loooong story short, which as you know is hard for me, we found a bad 60amp safety switch which could not be reset. Rob went to find one as I reinstalled the alternators, at least we have piece of mind they do put out volts. Rob could not find the exact switch so we installed a 60amp fuse the only difference is, it can't be reset, have 7 extra fuses. Everything is back and working fine, the alternators are putting out around 14 when running. Tomorrow we will head out on our way to Trent Ontario about 75 miles from Kingston. We have to go under a lift bridge that opens only on the hour and not during morning traffic as it leads to a military base we will try and hit the 9am opening after taking on some fuel.
If I bored those not into problems and fixing them sorry but if you made it this far into the blog it is to late to apologize.

Have a great day
Lin & Rich
Kingston, Ontario

Aug 9th Day 29

Well we are in Kingston Ontario on Lake Ontario. We have been having charging issues so decided to stop at Kingston Marina to have things checked out. As we were pulling in a fellow looper who we met in Whitehall gave us the number of a mechanic he had do work for him and he said he was good. We called Rob and he was at the marina before we got docked. We did some testing in the hot engine room and determined we should pull one of the 22 year old alternators off and have it bench tested. I took it off and he took it to the shop sure enough no good, pulled the second one and found that to be bad. Should have two rebuilt either tomorrow or Wednesday. By the time we get back we will have a new boat. Again we were lucky enough to be near a marina that could fix our problem. Better now than on the Trent Severn.

We celebrated our new parts with a pizza and beer dinner. Should be underway in a few days

Lin & Rich
Kingston Ontario

Aug 8 Day 28

A little rain this morning but by the time we got under way it stopped. The sun came out for a while this part of the Rideau Canal had some medium size lakes with a lot of islands many of which had some beautiful camps(houses) on them. There were a lot of marrow cuts between the lakes that you would not want to meet another boat on. Around 10 the wind picked up while we were on Styx River which was more like a lake and everything around it was flat as usual the wind was at our bow and it kick up 2 to 5 footers. The passage across the river(lake) was about 30' wide and they had markers every 50 yards,the path across looked like a snake made it. We arrived at the 4 locks at Kingston Mills at noon and had to wait as they said the wall below was full and we wanted to spend the night. We Lin and I passed up the first lock thru and walked to the bottom to check the wall out there was room, oh well HEY, did not get down thru the locks till 4:45 and it was in a heavy rain. Lin was on the bow all this time and even with rain gear got soaked I felt real bad but I did get 1 arm partial wet. We are about 4 miles from Kingston and will go by that tomorrow and start to make our way across the top of Lake Ontario(north Channel) to Trent our next canal adventure of 240 miles of rivers,lakes, and canal leading us to the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.
Today we traveked 22.6 miles 7 locks 2 swing bridges in 8.5 hours which seemed like 20

Well guess I have told you enough for today and it is almost 8pm and almost dark enough to hit the bed

Till next time

Lin & Rich
Kingston Mills, Ontario

August 7th Day 27

Today was a GREAT day for us.
We were up on the blue line(place u wait to get thru a lock) at 7:45 and found out the swing bridge and lock does not open till 8:45, oh well HEY(Canadian thing). No wind today and the weather was nice not hot with a lite breeze, again the canal was narrow and shallow. Then all of a sudden LAKES some looked like Champlain but still had a channel to follow but they had some beautiful homes hope they were not camps. There were many islands with one or two houses on them and I mean houses we Americans must be doing something wrong. We went across Indian Lake, Clear Lake, Sand Lake and Newboro Lake, actually could get the boat above 6 mph, took her up to 10mph to clean out some carbon and get rid of some weeds. We are in a place called Jones Falls, we traveled 38 miles today and went thru 12 locks and 2 swing bridges. It was a good day for us as we got some water and miles under our keel. We will take off early tomorrow and go thru 6 locks and reach Kingston, Ontario from there we will decide to hang out or head to start our trip up the Trent Severn which I mentioned earlier is 250 miles of canal and lakes and will bring us to the Georgian bay on Lake Huron.
Hey gotta go for now the ice cream store closes at 8pm and we want ice cream before dinner.

Aug 4,5,6 days 24,25 26

Well we are back under way again. Drove to Ottawa on Wednesday and picked up the impeller
I rebuilt the water pump and reinstalled it, it took longer than we thought as it was close to the front and port bulk heads, the old body does not bend as good as it use too. By the time I got it installed and checkout, for leaks etc. it was getting late. We decided to stay one more night in the marina and get an early start. It turned out to be a great decision just as we were having a refreshing beverage after a long day the sky turned black and down it came, thunder, lightening and heavy rain. On the 5th we were sitting at the fuel dock at 8am taking on fuel $4.08 per gallon, filling the water tank and getting pumped out. We were finally under way after 5 days at 9am. The day was beautiful both weather wise and scenery wise. We traveled 24.6 miles and got to Merrickville at 3pm going thru 7 locks and 2 swing bridges. We tied to the locks basin wall and relaxed for a while. Went up into town which had small shops and a couple glass blowing shops, nice but they all close at 5 and we got there at 4:45, oh well got some groceries and went to the beer store, only place you can get beer. Had a great night it was cool and great for sleeping. August 6th got up had breakfast and were under way at 9am, was tough getting under way as the wind was blowing strong and forcing us against the concrete wall. We are getting pretty good with the wind so off we went. The farther we went the narrower the canal got and the windier it got. After getting blown around in 5 locks and 2 swing bridges we decided to call it a day at 1pm and took a spot on the wall at Smith Falls. Real nice place, we walked up to Wal- Mart and I purchased the jumper pack that I should have brought but did not listen to Lin's advice a few months ago. What would we need that for I said and she said never know. Well I know now.
Tomorrow we will get out early and hope for fair winds so we can put some miles under our hull. Hope to be in Kingston Ontario in a few days and then start up the 250 mile Trent-Severn waterway to lake Huron.

Lin & Rich
Smith Falls, Ontario

Aug 1,2,3 days 21,22,23

Well we are still docked at Hurst(Willy & Bob c I asked no relation to Floyd) I had new batteries delivered today and installed them had to pay 110 for 2 workers to take out and install new ones they did the bull work I did the wiring, guess you r at the mercy of the marina. Tomorrow Lin and I will borrow the marina car and drive back to Ottawa Cat Diesel to pick up an impeller for the genny. THEN hopefully after I rebuild the genny water pump we will be under way again. These people r nice but expensive but guess that comes with an old boat and a loooong trip like this. We are just making the best of it and thinking someone has to have it worse than us. No really we r just taking one day at a time and for those who know me good that is tough for me, the only ones who would be a little more stressed out r my good friends the Haughney's We planned on taking it easy and slow but right now this is a little too slow.
Hopefully the next time I write we will be in a different location.

Lin & Rich

July 30, 31, Aug 1 Days 18,19,20

July 30th we left Ottawa and started down the Rideau Canal towards Kingston Canada. We have been having a little problem with the batteries so have been running the genny. In one of the locks the starboard engine would not start so fired up the genny and got the engine running, since we were traveling the locks by ourselves the tenders said it would be ok to keep the genny running. We traveled 15 miles to the Long Island(not NY) and planned to stayed on the wall there. the scenery and house on the canal were beautiful. Checked the strainer on the genny and it was full of weeds the canal is shallow and weed a lot just floating.Got up at night to check the batteries and 2 were down so ran the engines. In the morning we called Hurst marina to see if they had a load test for the batteries, they did so off we went 10 miles down the canal and when we got there found out 2 of the 3 batteries were done. Ordered three plus a genny impeller kit, no problem BUT Monday is a holiday so we won't be able to get them till Tuesday so here we are in a nice Marina for a three day rest. I will pull the water pump off the genny and Lin will clean we may even relax a little and the boat does need a good cleaning
Guess the next time we will bug u with info is Tues or Wens.

au revoir for now